The first year is prorated, so you might even break even or come out ahead even with just one combine.
It's well worth it to me, but I combine quite a bit (about 4-6 times a year). The rebates on combine fees, guest certificates and extra vacations are the most tangible benefit.
You can see reported Priority Access units in the Sightings forum. It's mainly hotels. Affinia was a nice option for anyone who visits NYC, but it disappeared months ago and hasn't come back.
I also suspect that the upgrades would be few and far between. I've never got one, but I usually book the biggest unit. There's a much better chance that a big unit will be available well in advance rather than 2 weeks out, and it's typically just a few TPU more. I'll consider it as "gravy" if I ever get an upgrade, but I don't expect to get one.
An undocumented benefit is that you often get access to extra vacation sales a day before general members. Sometimes there are some real gems in there, if you can take advantage of them. The 1 day head start makes it a little easier to find and get them.
I realize there was a previous thread on this question, but I wanted an update. We are going to combine TPUs in the next month or so and I wondered if we should upgrade to platinum first. We only have a weeks account.
For those of you who upgraded, would you do it again? Are there many priority exchanges or is this another chance for RCI to make money? The automatic upgrades would be a plus if they came through, but I wonder if they are few and far between.
Thanks for your insights.
Ava